Rise(1)

The man standing in front of Daneel was tall, taller even than the giants who had inhabited Angaria in the age of the Empire. He wore robes that looked extremely old-fashioned, with a belt around his waist to cinch them and interrupt the flow of fabric that had become the norm in later years. Bemusedly, Daneel found himself remembering the praetorians of ancient Rome from back on Earth, and the moment the image is formed in his mind…the man chuckled.

"I see…one of my brothers one said that all of reality is nothing but a handful of sand being sieved, again and again unto eternity. What comes out has a tendency of having appeared elsewhere, already. To you, it looks silly, but to me, those Romans look grand and imposing. How did they cease to be?"